Sunday, 18 September 2011

And now the end is near.....

Being almost at the finish line of my first pregnancy, and having recently read the blog of Red Boots, I was inspired to do (steal) a quick blog on a few of the things that have gotten me through pregnancy.

So without much further ado, here they are. I couldn't have done it without them.

Seriously.

My saviour.

Bio-oil. From the literal second I found out I was pregnant, I have been slathering this stuff all over my tummy morning, noon and night. I now have less than a week until my due date and have yet to develop a single stretch-mark. Maybe it's good genes. Maybe it's this lovely body oil. Who knows. But even if it is the placebo effect, it's made me feel a lot better about myself. NB: Ladies. Don't do what I used to do which was rub this on my tummy, then apply hair serum to my damp tresses. Then wonder, after blow-drying, why my hair still looked greasy. Rubbing oil in your scalp will do that. Apparently.

Soda water & lime. The only cure I found for morning sickness. And in the first trimester I got the morning sickness. Every. Single. Morning. Fat coke also deserves a mention here. Simply because I love the stuff. And it got me through many an afternoon energy slump. I'm not looking forward to going back to the days of smiling bitterly and saying "Diet Coke" when the waitress asks me what I would like to drink.

By far the biscuit to beat all other biscuits.

Biscuits. But not for the morning sickness. Like you are supposed to use and abuse biscuits when you are pregnant. No, I over-indulged in these gorgeous little delicacies for sheer, unadulterated, binging pleasure. Given that I tried to live a moderately healthy lifestyle before I became pregnant, I never allowed myself to have biscuits in the house. Simply because having them in the house would have meant that I would have eaten them. All. Probably in a very short space of time. So you can imagine my delight, upon finding out I was pregnant, that I would be able to indulge in said biscuits to my hearts content. I'm sure various doctors/midwives will tell you that this is not true but I disagree, calories don't count when you are pregnant. As a result I became a little bit biscuit obsessed. There wasn't a biscuit I hadn't tried. A make I hadn't tested. And our naughty cupboard soon became bursting at the seams with various biscuit-type confectionery. An afternoon was not an afternoon without a cup of tea and a couple of biscuits. I would sneak them in the trolley at the supermarket and a text from the boyfriend on his way home enquiring as to whether or not we needed anything would be replied to with one short, sweet, beautiful word......"biscuits". Unfortunately, I am now trying to 'wind down'. Or you could say my boyfriend has 'cut me off'. Whatever. Having not long to go I am trying to limit the amount of sugary, bad-for-you food we have residing in the cupboards. But I am assured by many that biscuits are an absolute necessity during those long nightly feeds and so the biscuits are not going anywhere just yet.

Garra Rufa Fish Pedicures.

Fish pedicures. Now I know a lot of people are rather squeamish about having tiny little fish nibbling away at the dead skin on your feet. But I'm not. At all. And this amazing beauty treatment was a god send during my pregnancy. Apart from keeping my feet baby soft (and all the nicer for my boyfriend to massage), plunging your feet in the cool water tank is also a great way to soothe tired and slightly bloated tootsies. I would highly recommend. As I would highly recommend Tickled Tootsies to anyone in the Glasgow area. The girls are lovely and they do some great deals.

Leggings/thick black tights/jumper dresses/tea dresses. I have practically lived in all of these throughout my whole pregnancy. Having had a pretty neat bump throughout, I have been lucky enough to only have had to invest in one piece of maternity clothing. A pair of jeans. And to be honest, I could have easily have gone without them. A few pairs of black stretchy leggings and some of my longer tops have been fine. Along with some of my day dresses. Believe me there is nothing better for your ego than still being able to wear a size ten or twelve when you are 8 months pregnant. Getting my boobs into some of them has been a bit more difficult though.

Afternoon baths. Amazing. Given that for the past couple of weeks it has been a feat in itself just to get me out of my pyjamas, a long hot soak in the afternoon is fabulous. Yes, a bubble bath in the afternoon is a bit against convention. You can't light candles for a start. But what the hell, I'm a rule breaker. And soaking myself in a long, hot bath and then slipping into something more comfortable (more pyjamas) is just the ticket when I feel rubbish. Particularly when my bath is complimented with a Lush bath bomb or this lovely stuff.

My nails. Growing them. Filing them. Painting them different colours. Sorting my cuticles. Nourishing them with almond oil. I never thought I would become one of those girls. But I have. They have become a little project of mine during the last couple of weeks. Mainly because with maternity leave can sometimes come boredom. And the frustration of being sick of laying doing nothing, but being too tired and feeling too rubbish to really do anything. They make me feel pretty. And it gives me something to do. Don't knock it.

Blogs. I was already a fan of the blogs of Miss Smidge, Pollypoptart & Helen but thanks to having some serious sofa time, I have recently discovered the delightful blogs of Meg, another Helen and Mich. I am getting a bit addicted to blogs actually. Trashy magazines like Heat and Closer also fall under this category. I realise that when the little munchkin arrives it will be alot more difficult to find the time for simple pleasures like blog reading. So I am over-indulging right now. Not that I am refreshing my Google Reader every two minutes or anything like that...........

Zantac. This stuff deserves a big mention. No, in fact, a huge mention. Because I now get heartburn every day. And without this stuff I would be impossible to live with. Before I made do with gnawing away at the chalky tabs of Rennies you more commonly see in the supermarket. Which did nothing. Then someone introduced me to these little tablets and actually changed my life. I down a couple of these bad boys and my heartburn is abated for at least a few hours. I always have packets everywhere. In my handbag, the bathroom drawers, the kitchen drawers, my night stand. I pop them like smarties. Probably taking way more than I should. Which is ironic, considering I nearly had a nervous breakdown the other day when I realised I had accidently double-dunted on my Pregnacare vitamins. I was fine by the way. For those of you worried. Apparently I was just being 'over-dramatic'.

Controversial.

And finally the last one. The controversial one. The one that I am sure will have the milk mafia throwing things at their laptops as they read: the occasional glass of wine. While I have hardly been necking the booze like Kerry Katona on a bender, I have allowed myself the occasional glass of wine in front of the telly. While I am sure that there are many who whole-heartedly disagree with drinking at all when pregnant, I am not one of them. I don't believe that a glass of red on a Saturday night is going to cause my child to be held back a year in primary school. Or miss out letters of the alphabet when she is older. While I don't advocate heavy drinking or getting drunk at all when pregnant, I really don't see the harm in the odd glass of vino. And most doctors and nurses I have spoken to agree with me. In France many pregnant women enjoy a glass of wine with their evening meal during pregnancy and in Belgium doctors actually recommend the odd bottle of beer. It's because "we live in the age of the ladette drinking culture where binge drinking is so rife that doctors are forced to advise women not to drink at all simply because most women won't stop at just the one". Those were a doctors words. Not mine. For the record, I have also indulged in soft cheese, runny eggs and (always cooked) shellfish. I believe that a lot of the over-bearing, big-brother style health warnings these days are a bit over the top. Ask your Mum. She will probably agree with me. The only foods I have properly avoided are pate and offal because apparently Vitamin A can actually cause direct damage to the foetus. The other foods you are to avoid in case of food poisoning. And the girl who drank raw eggs to beat a hangover and has never paid attention to an expiry date in her life doesn't really get food poisoning. Well, I haven't yet anyway.

Disclaimer: I would like to take this opportunity to apologise for the fact that this has become a bit of a pregnancy blog of late. Even though I promised myself it wouldn't. I would also like to take this opportunity to promise that it will not become a baby blog. Although you may be subjected to some schmaltzy, over-emotional type posting after she is born. After that I will be back to my normal, withering, cynical and pessimistic self. So apologies again. Normal service will be resumed shortly.

6 comments:

If you're diggin' on the sparkling water, you should get a Soda Stream soda maker! Then you can make homemade sparkling water, or even buy Diet soda flavoring for it. Best household purchase I've made in years! Good luck and good health for the remainder of your pregnancy:)

I reaaaally wanna try one of those pedicures. Or a pedicure in general. But the fishy one sounds fun?

Fat coke is one of my indulgences, so delicious. I'll drink diet anything else, and usually do when I'm not downing water, but every once in a while, a fat coke is deliiiicious. Also, have never heard them called Fat Coke and now I'm stealing that.

Your leggings/long shirts dresses = my idea of perfect dressing, even though I'm not pregnant. But it's so comfortable! And versatile, and I can play outside or lounge in it! And nowadays, you can make it pretty cute and socially acceptable!